Magical history tour rewritten

The World Cup is also a war of words. Norman Fox samples what's on offer

With Japan and Korea beckoning, football publications abound like World Cup injury stories. The trivia will no doubt sell, but with a shelf life so limited that come July Oxfam shops will be inundated. Of course, there are the essential tomes such as Brian Glanville's continually updated history of the competition now called The Story of the World Cup (Faber and Faber, £9.99), and students of the game should not be without Cris Freddi's Complete Book of the World Cup 2002 (CollinsWillow, £12.99).

But at least this tournament has sparked a few innovative exceptions. At first glance, The All-Time World Cup (The Parrs Wood Press, £14.95) could be one of those subjective extensions to pub debates about who was the greatest player ever to appear in the World Cup, who were the best team and who would win if the leading countries could gather squads from all eras. Well, that is the fundamental idea behind David Brooks' painstaking research. Discovering that his day job was as a commodities journalist was not immediately encouraging... pessimistic thoughts of a fact-laden, none-too-stylish exercise best left to computer calculations. Far from it.

Brooks has transformed a straightforward assessment of teams and players into an absorbing appraisal based on his analysis of World Cup matches played between the leading 16 nations. His evaluation of the players is plausible and, with surprising credibility, he puts the arguments into the mouths of the chosen coach of each nation (Sir Alf Ramsey, obviously, for England).

It clearly invites opposing views (his Brazilian starting line-up omits the great winger Jairzinho; he has Sir Alf selecting Jack Charlton alongside Bobby Moore at the expense of Billy Wright, and this time Jimmy Greaves does play). The French side Aimé Jacquet leads is perhaps even more beguiling than even the Brazilians under Mario Zagallo. Platini, Tigana, Fontaine and Zidane together... magical.

As for the final outcome of this reverie, suffice to say that the finalists themselves are entirely predictable, as is England's meeting Germany in the quarter-finals. And the outcome? Put it this way: Sepp Maier dealt with David Beckham's free-kick.

Remembering how Nigeria arrived at the last World Cup being heralded as the finest team ever to have been produced by Africa, and how they played so well at the beginning but then seemed to relax, and how South Africa made little impression, the notion that an African country will win the World Cup in the foreseeable future seems like a moving target. Not surprisingly so in view of the internal turmoil, corruption and interfering politics.

Has Anybody Got A Whistle (also from The Parrs Wood Press, £9.95) is an extensive personal reflection of African football by Peter Auf der Heyde. When returning to South Africa after reporting the 1998 World Cup, he followed the campaign to bring the 2006 finals to that country. It was finally lost when the New Zealander Charles Dempsey, on whom South Africa depended for the one vote required to beat Germany, chose not to give it to them. An in-depth view of the politics, or simple eccentricity, behind the 78-year-old's decision from an African perspective would have been welcome, but Der Heyde is at his best when offering probably the most comprehensive contemporary view of domestic African football from within.

The decision to give Japan a slice of this summer's action despite its preoccupation with baseball (shades of USA 1994) and the cost of building stadiums that may never again be filled, remains open to scepticism. Japanese Rules by Sebastian Moffett (Yellow Jersey Press, £11) at least explains that while the attempt to popularise football through the J-League may not have been a complete success, the project had a bigger motive. He says it was an important part of trying to make "Japan more like the world outside Japan". Nothing he writes, however, suggests that next month Japan will make much of home advantage.